Rahm Slammed Dems Attacking Other Dems As “F–king Stupid,” Sources Say
The Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported this morning that Rahm Emanuel warned leaders of liberal groups in a private meeting this week that it was time to stop running ads attacking Blue Dog and “centrist” Dems on health care.
I’m told, however, that Emanuel went quite a bit further than this.
Sources at the meeting tell me that Emanuel really teed off on the Dem-versus-Dem attacks, calling them “f–king stupid.” This was a direct attack on some of the attendees in the room, who are running ads against Dems right now.
Tellingly, Rahm raised the specter of a loss on health care, sources at the meeting say — which suggests that the White House may be less certain about victory than officials allow publicly.
“He started out with, `We’re 13 and 0 going into health care,’” one source at the meeting said, meaning that Rahm was touting the White House’s string of pre-health care legislative victories.
“This momentum is necessary to do all these other things. We have a lot of momentum right now, and any loss spoils that momentum that we’ve built up,” was how the source described the gist of what Rahm said. A Rahm spokesperson didn’t return an email for comment.
Said one attendee: “It was the Rahm show.”
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Dear Rahm:
That speech should be addressed to the SIXTY dems in the Senate, with a special F.U. to Reid and baucus. Get your own house in order before you come after the liberal interests groups that gave Reid those 60 votes.
eric
“Tellingly, Rahm raised the specter of a loss on health care”
A bad bill IS a loss on healthcare. A weak ineffectual bill will only allow the GOP to say “see, we tried it and it doesn’t work”. The need is to go big or go home
Let’s see. Isn’t Rahm the person who saddled us with so many of the DINOs that are now standing in the way of healthcare reform? Yeah, I trust HIS instincts.
You know what Rahm, you’re F***** stupid. 60 G-d dam.n senators for what?! So they can play footsies with the GOP who AINT gonna vote for HC bill, anyway. EFF OFF!
Or Rahm just wanted to scare them.
And I understand what he’s sayin – this has always been our problem and this is a problem the GOP didn’t have – infighting. The GOP has it now that it has lost, which is a pretty good object lesson in what not to do.
Tena: you are not altogether wrong, but for once I would like to know that GOP-lite wing of the party does not get to call the legislative shots.
eric
The problem with Progressives is and always has been that you make the perfect the enemy of the good.
If we don’t get a perfect bill this time, we can always add to it. And the goal is not a perfect progressive victory – it’s health care for people who don’t have it.
If we get that done, quit carping about the rest of it. This is how we shoot ourselves in the foot and start losing.
Tena, again no argument. But, all things considered, us progressives have been VERY quiet. Progressives want single payer. Yet, that was dead on day one and not one peep from progressives because we know that a win with a public option is so much better than what we have now. But a win without a public option, that is not change we can beleive in.
eric
Eric:
Seconded.
For those inclined to take Rahm too seriously, I’ve got three words for you to keep in mind: Fifty-state strategy.
I’ve said it before (and I’m sure I’ll say it again): Rahm Sux.
A less flippant comment:
1. Quite right on not attacking Dems just because they’re Blue Dog. It’s their individual stance on health care that matters.
2. The progressive groups have not been attacking centrist Dems. They’ve been attacking right-wing Dems.
Left-wing Dems want single payer. Centrist Dems want anything that will cover the citizenry and stop the health-care cost spiral. Right-wing Dems want to keep that spiral going; it fuels their campaign coffers.
Both sides are getting a bit unhinged. Repeating this sort of stuff is dangerous, IMO. I don’t think it is responsible for anyone to make such an attack and I don’t think it is responsible for Greg or anyone to spread this sort of stuff around. Both sides are already getting enough “ammo” to ratchet up their emotions – please don’t feed the extremists on both sides any more. Please tone it down, especially you Greg.
Why does he complain about progressives? The progressives are the reason the bill is this far. He should be with us in getting the blue dogs to **** or get off the pot.
This exchange reeks of the bitterness from the Rahm v Dean feud. Does he really think that he’s “13-0″ because of Baucus and Nelson?
to be fair, Progressives got what they wanted with Geitner and Sumners and the stimulus bill, oh and transparency and DADT and DOMA.
As a progressive I have hel dmy fire cause “I get it.” I know what is at stake. It is the effing Conservative Dems that fail to see what is at stake, or perhaps they dont care.
I have fallen on my ideological sword plenty since Jan 20. This is too big to fail.
Finally, I have impressed with Obama and I am a big fan of his Obama Fu approach to politics. I just dont want to hear what poor sports progressives are.
eric
Rahm is awful silent when conservatives attack liberals.
******* hypocrite.
Sorry, Chris, it can’t work that way.
Facts are facts. If you believe in the importance of an informed citizenry, you should believe we’re better off being factually informed.
Further, I would not think of suggesting to Greg that he compromise his objectivity in order to give advantage to any particular side of an issue**. Suppressing stuff that’s obviously newsworthy can grow into a cancer. That perception of Greg’s objectivity is this blog’s currency and should not be squandered.
** He doesn’t have to. The GOOPers are loonies, and that will out. Just look at how they’ve been using their Second Amendment rights to adjust the anatomy of their feet.
Here you have Rahm Emanuel, a person who earned $16 million in 2 years as a bank official trying to orchestrate Senators and Congress people to not do the same thing with health lobbyist groups. Good luck gettng the cat back in the bag.
Why shouldn’t Dems who act like Repubs be attacked? If you vote like a repub, be prepared to be attacked like a repub. If healthcare doesn’t pass, it will be because a few dems got cold feet not because they were attacked.
@eric: “to be fair, Progressives got what they wanted with Geitner and Sumners and the stimulus bill, oh and transparency and DADT and DOMA.”
You’re kidding, right?
Because of all the disinformation swirling around the issue of health care, most Americans don’t even know that Medicare is a government-run program. Progressive Democrats are merely trying to point out that single payer, universal health care is the least expensive and best way to provide health care for every American. Why pay billions more to insurance companies to do something they do so badly? Americans who voted Democratic in the belief that every American deserves quality, affordable health care, and that the Democrats would make it happen, are entitled to express their disappointment with members of Congress who have betrayed these principles. If they happen to be Democrats, they are Democrats in name only, and should be replaced by genuine progressives.
Where is Rahm’s venom when this kind of junk is espoused: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/07/top-blue-dog-boasts-we-he_n_253967.html ?
Or this: http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=726 ?
The opposition is thrown down the gauntlet … shutting up and retiring from the field is no answer, and Rahm F*****G knows it.
It’s conservative Dems like Rahm that are sinking the country.
Without Rahm and company standing in the way, we’d finally be able to have a decent country to live in once again … one in which we’re not 50th in life span and 46th in infant mortality (CIA Factbook).
If health care reform fails it will be because of Wimp-o-crats like Reed and Dumb-o-crats like Rahm and co.
Someone said it earlier: right-wing Dems like Baucus, Reed, et al are just Republicans with a “D” next to their names.
I’m very progressive, so I understand the desire to vent on this issue. The problem here, is that we are pointing fingers at individuals for the gridlock in the Democratic Party. I think there are plenty of folks to blame for the logjam on healthcare reform, but there is also a structural problem that Dems must acknowledge. Namely, districts seem to be drawn nationally in a way that makes it very difficult for the Dems to hold a significant majority of Progressive Dems in congress. Thus, we turned into a “big tent” party for the sake of a majority. This has an enormous amount of problems, but it could be argued that it is much better than having the bat Sh** crazy GOP running the show. The fight isn’t going to stop here, so try to stay somewhat positive. The policy issues progressives are fighting for are exceptionally important, and could actually get more politically feasible to address over time due to changing demographics.
Having said that, I think the only reason that the progressive groups should call off the attacks on the DINO’s is if the attacks on them are really going to kill the bill due to the crybaby BS of the “blue dog” crew.
Dear Rahm,
Not bloody likely. Some people are worried about the nature of legislation rather than ratcheting up a purely political track record. We do this right and you will have all the political capital you want, if you don’t you’ll be the talk of the Village for your accomplishments but the people who worked their *** off for you you won’t be in your corner for 2012 and will have completely evaporated by 2016.
Ask Lincoln Chafee about in-fighting. The Republicans would LOVE to have this problem.
MoveOn.org and alike started running negatives on my senator, Kay Hagan, on a Friday. She had been silent on the issue of a “public option” until then and then as soon as started running, she tells the press “I’m in favor of the public option.”
Rahm Emanuel has that Rove/Cheney feel to him. That unelected “Power behind the Throne” Lady Macbeth feel. I don’t like him.
Barack Obama didn’t create a movement and of course doesn’t control it. He only taped into pro-liberal reforms/anti-Bush wave that was only there long before 2004 DNC Keynote speech.
What’s “f—ing stupid” is Rahm attacking the people that put them in the White House. If he wants to go after someone then he should go after the Blue Dog Republicans who are gutting reform so they can get fat checks from their masters in big business.
Rahm never minded when these groups gave his candidates millions of dollars and votes. Now they dare stand up against the bribe taking Blue Dog Democrats and he has a fit. Frak him!
Rahm Emanuel as the Lady Macbeth of the Obama administration! Ha, I love it!
The Democratics should have tried harder in Massachusetts. If Massachusetts had this worldclass healthcare system that everybody love, it’s be easier to showcase it the rest of the nation. That’s what happened in Canada. Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas (Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather no less) got universal healthcare within the province and the rest of Canada saw how great it worked and wanted Ottawa to do the same at the federal level.
FU Rahm Emanuel. You should be replaced. We want a strong public healthcare option. You are weakening efforts to get a decent bill through. You and Baucus should take a walk. Right wing democrates we should go after them and you Rahm should be replaced
Dennis M
This is the reason why we have a hard time hanging onto the White House. It is sad to watch. So much good can be done but we have to fight amongst ourselves and next thing we have a Contract with America stuff going on and fail once again the mandate we were given in the fall.
Did anybody else see Chris Matthews attack Howard Dean’s brother relentlessly because of the ad they are running against Ben Nelson? It was amazing to watch that a$$hole talk over Dean’s brother and keep trying to ascribe bad intentions to him and Howard Dean. He even kept saying that Rahm and Dean don’t like each other as if that was the reason they were running the ad. That dude pi$$ed me the f*ck off with that. When the clip comes up I will link it in comments.
Let me say one thing here that everybody needs to think about.
There isn’t a ConservaDem in Congress that is going to vote against passing health care reform unless passing it is already secured. Not a damn one of them will want to be known as the one vote that kept us from getting close to universal healthcare. At some point the White House and other leaders in Congress need to realize that and then just say eff it. We are bringing the best Democratic bill to the floor and if you vote against it your name will be known by everyone as the person who killed healthcare reform. I don’t give a damn how red their district or state is, if they kill healthcare reform they will never get reelected again. They all know it, including Ben Nelson. You can’t find more than 5 of them that have a damn spine anyway. But Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and even to an extent Pres Obama keep acting like these folks would really hold the bill hostage.
Bull effing sh*t.
If they call their bluff we will get the bill we all hoped for when we voted for President Obama . If they don’t we are either going to get a watered down bill or none at all and they will still pay a heavy political price. Thats why we should attack those ConservaDems even harder to get the the hell out of the way.
It is what it is.
The Democrats show have tackle tax reform (Cayman Islands) to ensure it had a source to pay fo HC and stricter lobbying reforms and public campaign funding so that lawmakers wouldn’t be facing what they are now. It’s the horse before the cart.
Alistair Brown was sort of considered Tony Blair’s “Lady Macbeth,” so I guess it been discovered that Rahm Emanuel is Barack Obama’s Lady Macbeth.
It is something to keep an eye out for.
If I could be sure Obama also sees that in Rahm, I’d feel better. Surely BigO knows that hiring a bulldog is not done for the bulldog’s brains. Surely he knows who’s good at strategy and who’s good at tactics. He certainly is smart enough to discount that part of Rahm’s advice that exceeds the bogon flux density limit.
Right?
Maybe the Dems oughta rename their bill Medicare for Everybody.
You can bet that the reason Rahm teed off so spectacularly was to ensure that items like this would follow.
What’s f-ing stupid, Rahm,is you acting like liberals are the f-ing problem, and f-ing Democrats trying acting like f-ing Republicans! You won’t f-ing win the next one without us liberals. Stand in the way of a good f-ing public option, and you can f-ing line up a talk show for the next eight f-ing years, because you’ll be out of a f-ing job!
Where does Rahm Emanuel get off criticizing the so called Democratic wing of the Democratic party? Puhleeze, you fools didn’t have anything ready for healthcare. You knew this election was yours last fall and you knew this was THE signature piece of legislation. You have Max Baucus and Kent Conrad who couldn’t wait to stop real healthcare reform. Excuse me, Rahmbo maybe if you and your boss weren’t so bought off by big business maybe we could have gotten somewhere. And no don’t bother putting lipstick on a pig by passing a so called reform bill with no reform except more guaranteed customers for insurance cos. Business Week had an article yesterday basically saying health insurance cos have won and trust me it had zero to do with the left. Why oh why would you have Billy Tauzin negotiating for the WH. The same Billy Tauzin who raped the country with Part D and then went off to accept his bribe from BigPharma.
Who was in this meeting?
I know the first thing on my mind, and the first sentence out of my mouth would be:
“No Rahm, it’s f***ing stupid for the WH to allow Mike Enzi to essentially be the ultimate decider on health care reform in the Senate. Take your big-boy b***s and head over to the finance committee and get us a d*** bill. And until you can get your f***ing blue dogs in line, and stop them from undercutting, stalling, and watering down health care reform…then maybe, MAYBE we’ll think about backing off. Until then, get your own f***ing house in order, because we handed your a** 60 votes in the Senate and an overwhelming majority in the House – if this fails, it’s sure as s*** all on you.”
I really think me and Rahm would get along. And I mean that seriously. LOL
Can you say POWER HUNGRY? Why else would someone like Rahm do this job….he made all his money off you and me at Fannie Mae(by the way, he didn’t see anything while he was there). Why not go to the private sector and make something….Nah, its more fun to spend other peoples money and be a jerk to your buddies in the house and senate.
By the way, have you ever seen a President “campaign” not during campaign season? Obama looks so freaking desperate! I hope he fails!…I love saying it. I hope he fails.
I know you said it when Bush was in office, but at least he was trying to secure our country from terrorists and free 50 million Iraqis….I know how you Progressives care so much about other people.
Dear Rahm,
Cry me a ******* river *****!Now that said, I will not lessen my resolve to put pressure on every member of the democratic party who thinks that appeasing the republicans for three lousy votes is worth more than the safety and well being of American citizens. I will support the president, and I will inform and motivate those around me to engage the idiot teabaggers.
So Rahm, the president has my support, but you do not. Unless you actually start to pressure the right people. Right now, you aren’t.
Go get em BBQ…I bet you know how to spend other peoples money for healthcare and clunkers. I need a new plasma…could you talk to Rahm and see if he could push for a cash for old plasma’s? I’d love a new LCD or Plasma. We could call it “Take money from other people and give it to me to buy a new LCD” Program. I’m sure it would help the unions in Japan. Oh wait, they don’t have them….they’re smart businessmen.
Rahm has it just right.
The problem in the liberal camp is not a enough discipline.
WE CAN’T GO AFTER OUR OWN TROOPS!!!!
Another case in point was liberal bloggers actually attacking Keith Olbermann. Attack Bill O’Reilly for god’s sake! Attack the crazy birthers, big pharma and these crazy – NOT THE PEOPLE ON OUR SIDE!
We don’t win by taking out our guys. We win by weakening the other team so they can’t pick our guys off. If dems attack other dems, it just makes them easier to pick off.
Rahm understands this, and I think it’s about time he put a muzzle on some of these people.
@ jzap et al, I think you missed my spoof. I was quoting nearly word for word what idiot SBJ said in the last post.
Of course I don’t subscribe to my previous comment. I was just using it to show how hypocritical and idiotic it was for super tough guy SBJ to say it. There’s really nothing he says that makes sense.
Ankur, your Dear Leader was a community organizer and he can’t organize his own party when he controls EVERTYHING? Something tells me his community organizer days weren’t spent managing people, just going to listen to his racist minister spew hate about all of us white people and then figuring out how he can fit into Chicago Machine Politics….ah, marry the girl who is already in the machine…Michelle. Ah, you progressives are dopes…name me a country that can properly defend itself and give all of the rich peoples money to the poor? There aren’t any you dopes!…haha.
I do know how to spend money for health care better – single payer. It’s the most efficient system, costs less than what we have now, and every person in the country is covered automatically. I’d suggest you researching a bit, but I think we all know it’s tough to see the screen with your head so far up your…but Rush comes in loud and clear.
The clunkers program must really drive you nuts, because it showed how Government intervention can actually help sometimes. Considering a majority of the top cars sold were made in American (hint: Toyota has car factories in the US), I’d say it did exactly what we needed it to do – AND might help the environment a little. Two-fer!
There’s no reason to do the TV thing, it’s not a big enough market to have an impact – housing and cars are really the only two worth injecting money into like this. I’ll bet if they had called it a “Car Buying Tax Credit” you would think it’s the greatest thing ever.
Or really, if the program was exactly the same but had been suggested by a Republican President you’d be fine with it too.
Hope you have more than a six pack buddy – because it’s going to be a looooooong 3 and half more years. Then you get Obama’s second term! Just think when Pres. Obama takes on immigration reform…lol!
Yeah, BBQ…you’re right, It worked…got the unions to build more cars. BO:took care of the unions, check! What’s next on the list? Actually it does make a bit of sense in the idea that its taking the taxpayers money and somewhat giving it back to them in the form of a rebate. When we do this single payer system will we all pay the same amount into the healthcare kitty or will have to pay your share? and the illegal alien that just came to our country b/c she’s pregnant and can’t afford it in Mexico?
Social Security started out small and grew. We couldn’t even get SCHIP for kids all in one gulp. I desperately wanted a single payer universal health care plan, but if that doesn’t work out, then we should take what we can get and build on it just like we did with Social Security. It takes longer by far than I want, but it doesn;t scare people so badly. The very people who fought it like the black death when we were fighting for it are the same people who are now fighting like any health care for other Americans would be terrible. It’s the Senior citizens who are fighting the hardest. You’d think that none of them loved their children or grand children, but really they have bought into the fear tactics until they are literally scared out of their minds.
Karela…So if the top 20% of taxpayers pays 80% of all the taxes, at what point do you think that 20% of people will be able pay for this? You know, if you brought up the single payer thing and required EVERYONE to pay the same amount, might seem fair, but for now, just seems silly to keep going back to the same trough for money to pay for this. Do you think that well will ever run dry?
Although I initially reacted negatively to this, after some thought, I have reconsidered. It sounds to me like Rahm and Barack have a plan for a vast progressive agenda that deals with many, many pet issues of Democrats. Rahm thinks it’s “stupid” to get picky about what they’re doing now because he knows — and expects us to take on faith — that they have a plan. That they will get to other issues, but not if they get knocked down. Thus, it’s in our interest not to knock Obama down.
Rahm acts like he has forgotten two things: a) trust, or cynicism, is not a matter of rational thought, and b) we have a right to get picky about details and it is rational to expect our government officials to honor the impact details have on our individual lives.
I think Rahm does not believe that the conversation (about, for example, health care)can be had in a very effective way, so we will need to settle for less-effective legislation borne of a completely bonkered legislative process in an unprecedentedly noisy public space. To us, this doesn’t look like a winning streak headed towards our wildest hopes and dreams. It looks like Rahm’s vision of “the best we can hope for.” I think he should respect that while he may be correct, we have the right to hope for greatness. Even if the sad truth is that right now, not even a committed political leader like Barack Obama can seem to turn that out.
Eric, Tena, Dustin and Ankur: I agree with you. The Republicans are the enemy, and they’re coming on plenty strong right now. Don’t undermine our majorities in Congress. Emanuel and Schumer worked their butts off to find Democrats that could carry Repub. districts. Personally my husband and I gave way more than we could afford to help get Democrats elected in 2006 and start turning things around.
As Dustin says; “…districts seem to be drawn nationally in a way that makes it very difficult for the Dems to hold a significant majority of Progressive Dems in congress. Thus, we turned into a “big tent” party for the sake of a majority. This has an enormous amount of problems, but it could be argued that it is much better than having the bat Sh** crazy GOP running the show. The fight isn’t going to stop.” This is the time for us to hold together. Most of the people here want to fight other Democrats. You’d rather be ideologically pure. I sincerely pray that you do not help elect more Republicans next year.
Hey Rahm, then tell those Dems to quit acting like F**cking republicans because this isn’t the change I voted For!
For those who associate Rahm with the fifty-state strategy, I’ve got two words for you:
Howard Dean.
The fifty-state strategy would not have been possible without the progressive Dean’s hard work. We don’t need to abandon principles and promises in order to win elections. But that’s what Rahm would have us do.
Amazing how Rahmie feels that we should be so party loyal to the very Dogs who are disloyal to our party. Sorry Rahmie….they’d better serve We The People…or they’re Blue Toast.
Oh. Sorry. I had no idea you were spoofing is because I automatically skip over sbj’s comments.
I mean, life gives me plenty ’nuff aggravation without going looking for more.
Rahm needs to understand that we sent his folks to Washington to fulfill some big-*** promises. If they don’t sack-up and do the job, we’re going to jump up their ***, sideways — the same as we would any ‘pug.
.
I don’t think housing is quite ripe yet.
From looking at constant-dollar charts of historical housing prices, my guess is that they’ll have to come down to about 50% of their peak before they reflect true value. Then the housing market can start its comeback with some vigor. We’re not quite there yet, but I think we’re close.
Attacking Dems is stupid. It raises up their negative numbers and the spector of a Republican challenge in the mid term election. Since most of these centrist Dems come from Republican district. They will have a hard time hold their seats. We need to keep are majorities in Congress. It is self defeating. You are doing the exact same thing as the Rethugs Club for growth. And now there is really not many moderate Rethugs in Congress. Stop being stupid. We will never get a liberal congressperson in districts in the south. Nancy Pelosi can’t win in Georgia or Ala. So what, you want to purge our party of centrist Dems like the Repthugs did to their party. Please stop the insanity.
Cozying up to the Health Insurers lobbyists and the Pharma lobbyists and agreeing to give them everything that they want is simply MORE OF THE SAME; SAME OLE “POLITICS AS USUAL” routine that we saw with the Bush Whitehouse. If you continue to insist on passing a bill that only benefits the Corporate Fatcats you’ll see Republicans return to power big time in 2010, 2012, & 2014. The majority of the 2008 voters voted for “change that we can believe in.” So far for the Obama Administration continues to be content with simply maintaining the status quo set in place by the Dubbya Bush White House. If this continues much longer, you’ll see the moderate to liberal voters simply sitting out the next 2, 3, or 4 election cycles.
One way to resolve this would be on the basis of states rights. Let some states opt out of it if they want. Let others have the single payer, cooperatives or the “public option” if they so choose.
Another thing they might do is stop calling it “the public option”. It needs a real name. Why not just make it part of Medicare? That has the virtue of sounding like something that is not new fangled. I would have called it “Medicare expansion” right from the beginning, since that’s what it really is. (I realize that Medicaid is also going to be expanded.)
The “public option” just sounds too nebulous.
I can see why no one is talking about the individual mandates to buy private health insurance, which is naturally very popular with the insurance companies but it won’t be with Joe Average. I think Obama should just jettison that at some point.
If they need money for this, especially as the baby Boomers retire, they should consider some form of Tobin Taxes on currency trading or direct central bank financing. No way is any of this going to be cheap.
In any case, I think we also need some kind of national investment bank and national housing bank, to do the things that the private banks are unwilling or unable to do, so why not have central bank financing of teh entitlement trust funds as well?
And I may be the only one left who isn’t holding to the conventional wisdom that the Republicans are going to do well in 2010 and 2012. I think the opposite is going to be true–that they are not going to have a good decade at all.
This is just based on the fact that we are in the first reform cycle since the 1960s. We have them every 30-40 years, and they usually last about a decade. This one might last even longer since we have just gotten out of a very long conservative era, no matter whether it’s called the Age of Reagan, the Second Gilded Age or whatever.
I don’t expect the Republicans to make a comeback before the 2020s, if this reform cycle follows the normal historical pattern, We are right at the beginning of the cycle, not the end, and the conservatives are hysterical. That always happens in reform eras, too.
I think Rahm mouthing off at the progressive groups who are criticizing the obstructionist Blue Dogs might turn out to be a Good Thing in a weird, twisted-logic kind of way. It improves the administration’s cred (and with that, leverage) with the Blue Dog senators.
BigO came out and said the anti-Blue-Dog ads were unhelpful. (Good optics there.) But he didn’t do anything about it. No actual punishment for the progressive groups.
Well, those Blue Dogs are gonna buy that only so far, so the admin has to turn it up a notch and have Rahm actually come out and bark at the Proggers. It has to be a good performance to be convincing, and so it is. But again no real skin off the progressive groups’ noses — not any more than they’d suffer from one of Harry Reid’s famous sternly worded letters.
This has advantages for the administration. They get the results of the Prog Dems’ ads — pushing Blue Dogs away from their right-wing positions — without suffering any of the blame. A good-cop-bad-cop situation with an unwitting bad cop.
Plus, with the Proggers now cursing Rahm (and some his boss, too), the admin has a tool to use on the Bluish. They can claim this shows the bill can’t be bent much further to the right without blowing up the necessary support from the left.
Hmmm. Ya think maybe I’ve been reading too much John le Carré?
I associate Rahm with the fifty-state strategy only in that he’s famous for his opposition to it. And famously wrong, as it turns out. Howard Dean knew where things were at.
My “three word” reference (way above) was meant to evoke skepticism of Rahm’s current pronouncements. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
I think this is a tough situation. Republicans tend to be BLIND followers. Works well for them, but it ultimately works really lousy for the country as a whole. I think it’s a badge of honor that Dems AREN’T blind followers. But it means sometimes some of those blue dogs at the more conservative extreme seem like Republicans to the rest of us. And we get REALLY FRUSTRATED with our ‘BIGGER’ tent.
I’m glad the Blue Dogs are willing to call themselves Dems – that is huge on it’s own – but they sure muck with the passage, of what the rest of Dems consider to be, REALLY badly needed legislation.
It’s a tough situation and a tough call about how to deal with them.
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Obama the DIVIDER
Obama the gangsta and his homeboy Rahm
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Obama sold himself as the great UNITER but the implementation of his ideology is creating the worse division in this nation in decades.
And the left-wing demonization of citizens compounds the problem.
It sounds like every problem Rahm Emanuel sees looks like a nail. Playing the righ against the left side of the Democratic party is risky and the goal of that meeting should have been understood to get the team to work together. Too bad it was hammer time for Johnny One Note.
The oligarchy lets us vote. That is all.
Rahm should grow-a-set. Pffffffft!
Rahm,
Didn’t you just attack a bunch of other dems? You know, of course, what that makes you. F@#*ing stupid.
Rahm, Rahm, Rahm.
Some days I don’t know whether to tell you ‘Go thrash ‘em!’ or mail you a rotten fish.
like i said earlier, Rahm attacking us is the wrong enemy. We’re his money, his resources, his base and yet he sides with dems in red states that act like and are conservatives. The absolute lack of logic is staggering. Perhaps this another form of obama-jitsu, but personally, I’m tired of being flipped and thrown at the enemy.
He can go pound sand. As someone who enthusiastically supports targeting the traitorous conservaDems, I care not a wit about anything Rahm has to say, other than to note that his displeasure is an indication that the attacks are having the desired effect.
Thanks Liberals. You’ve done for us Libertarian Republicans what we’ve been trying to do for decades: Unite the Right.
Libertarians on the whole have been very cynical and skeptical of any alliances with Conservatives, given differences over foreign policy and some social issues like choice on abortion.
But no more.
By attacking free speech, and banning constituents who disagree with socialist health care from Democrat Town Halls, Libertarian Party members, Ron Paulists and even more hardcore Anarcho-Libertarians are raging mad.
They’re shedding their out-of-the-loop third party memberships for Republican Party buttons and lapels.
We couldn’t have done it without you all.
You guys better be careful. I just saw that Rahm collected your IP addresses and sent them to flag@whitehouse.gov You’re all in trouble for second guessing the rahmbo…he’s going to cut you at the knees or make you swim with the fishes in Lake Michigan.
A bad bill (ie, without a public option) is not worth passing. These congresspeople who clearly have the insurance company’s interests at heart need to be opposed. And Obama needs to make a stand on this. The nuts are rallying against him and as a progressive I haven’t seen anything to defend. A wimpy search for the “middle” is not what I donated money to and voted for. The right wing is destroying this country and Obama needs to step up.
Let me step into this as an Eisenhower Republican from Nebraska and give you a slightly different perspective. First, I am completely FOR a single-payer universal healthcare system. It only makes economic and social sense on every level, but, the reality being what it is, I will accept a Public Plan Option as part of health care reform, but not health care reform without it. 14% of our GNP currently goes to “health care” in the United States vs. 3-4% in countries with single payer. Where does that extra 10-11% go? Not to better care, but into additional overhead costs of physicians who have to hire extra people just to process the myriad and convoluted claim forms of Insurance Companies, and more hideous, into the coffers of the Insurance companies as “profits” and the pockets of their CEO’s as “compensation”. Health Insurance companies are a parasitic drain on our country’s economy. Enough on that.
On Senator Ben Nelson. He is a Democrat in name only. Ben Nelson was a Republican Insurance Executive who became the State’s Insurance Examiner. He became a Democrat only when he saw the opportunity to further his own career, as for the Gubenatorial Election that year, the Dems had no viable candidate, and the Reps had a weak one, so Ben became a Dem as a “Conservative” and won two terms as Governor, and two so far as a Senator. He is NOT a “BLue Dog” Dem, he is a Republican in Dem’s clothing!
I lost my small business and had to let five people go four years ago because I could not secure Health insurance for myself either outright, or else at rates that were over half my income for a catastrophic plan with a $30K deductible because of my “pre-existing” hypertension. I wound up spending five days uninsured in the hospital for a staph infection in my knee that almost killed me, and bills that totalled well in excess of $20K!
Ben Nelson is bought and paid for for $2.2MILLION in Health Insurance Lobby money! I launched the first salvo against him, with the help of Change-Congess.org, on June 1st. This was following a conversation I had with him on May 1st in which he vehemently reiterated his opposition to the inclusion of a Public Plan Option in any Healthcare reform bill. His only change from that stance publicly has been to state that he won’t block a cloture motion in the Senate to bring the bill to the floor. He has NOT yet publicly stated support for a Public Plan, nor will he ever, unless we REALLY turn the heat up on him, and even then I doubt it.
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY support the efforts of DFA and PCCC in going after Nelson for his stand based off his Insurance ties! Nelson and Baccus are just Health Insurance Lobby obstructionists who are bought and paid for. Neither will support legislation that will include a Public Plan Option. Both are working hard to keep our money flowing to their real masters.
What an absolute loser of a putz Mr. Israel Rahm is. First he elects these feckless moron Blue Dogs, then he takes credit for Dean’s brilliant fifty state strategy. You’re NOTHING Rahm without smarter people like Dean. That’s your entire career in a nutshell, you FREAK.
What’s with you ramgoat? Is it your way or noway. remember you also work for us. Let me remind you are a democrat who hates and would do your darnedess to hurt another democrat Dr Howard dean because you do like his politics whi is much closer to OURS
Ramgoat [correction] does not like Dr Dean
F**king stupid statements like Rahm made foment even more violence. (Even domesticated and otherwise friendly dogs will naturally attack instinctively when they sense weakness.)
So, provoked by stunning electoral defeats in 2006 & 2008, Congressional Republicans – abetted by funding from manipulative, wealthy, arch-right wing elites – are now openly encouraging violence upon their adversary majority party – Rahm’s party.
“F**king stupid” is failing to confront and publicly expose the direct connections of these manipulations.
“F**king stupid” is backing off government-paid, doctor-run and hospital-run medical care for all.
“F**king stupid” is playing to lose on medically-run, publicly financed medical care for all.
If anyone’s being f**king stupid” it’s Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm, Rahm. Didn’t your mama tell you that you can catch more flies with honey?
“F**king stupid” is not reading Sara Robinson, here: http://www.alternet.org/politics/141819/is_the_u.s._on_the_brink_of_fascism/
today.
Here are some troubling facts that support a strong effective change in the form of single payer or government option. The first is the cost of insurance on the open market for people who don’t buy it as part of a group. I am a self employed individual. I don’t have employees. I pay $1,100 per month for a basic HMO that is one step above a hospitalization only plan. The insurance covers only me. If I could buy through a group my plan would cost less than 50% of what I pay now. The second fact is that employer provided health insurance is going the way of employer defined benefit pensions. There is a slow erosion of employer based health insurance. Most employers provided 100% of the cost of health insurance for employees and their families until the late 1980’s. Then employers provided coverage for the employee while requiring the employee to pay for coverage for his family. Employers are now requiring employees to pay an ever increasing portion of their own insurance as well as the coverage for family members. The day is coming when employers won’t provide health insurance benefits because they don’t have to. All those who think that have it made with an employer provided plan will find themselves buying insurance on the open market paying exhorbitant premiums. It’s now or never my friends. We’re all in this together. Maybe we need to all take a look at the wall and read it before we slam into it.
Husker: Thank you for your poignant, well articulated story. A valuable contribution, indeed.
The problem, Rahm, is that America is a center-right nation, with a lot of moderates that voted for Obama. Policy and rhetoric of this administration is FAR from centrist. Don’t just attack the BlueDogs alone, stop attacking moderate voters and make policy that reflects the platform that got you elected.
Eric Dondero wrote:
Has this actually happened anywhere outside of your syphilitic little brain?
Thanks for confirming what I’ve thought all along, namely that most so called Libertarians are nothing more than dope-smoking Republicans who are completely full of **** and when the chips come down will have no problem with abandoning their principles and becoming authoritarians. I don’t see how anyone who genuinely believed in individual liberty or free markets could ally themselves with the Republican leadership that gave us Terry Schiavo, the Iraq War, the War on Some Drugs, TSA, warrantless wiretapping and the most massive expansion in the size of the US government since Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. Of course Libertarians really don’t believe in free markets or individual liberty or any of that other stuff they’re constantly blathering about. Nope, as I’ve said before they’re just Republicans who like to smoke dope.
I’m getting out my credit card and sending money to the groups airing these ads. Rahm is everything that is wrong with the current Democratic Party. I’m done with this party if there is no public option.
Rahm is Obama’s Cheney. Not bad enough that he’s got Biden to deal with, but a pitbull with loose lips will eventually sink his ship.
What he should do is figure out why a few solutions to the problems of the country and stop the in-fighting.
a. Get us a healthcare program that will allow EVERY American to get healthcare.
b. get banks to stop ******** their customers with ludicrous overdraft fees. 7.8 billion a year in overdraft charges???? How many people can that feed?
c. stop outsourcing jobs overseas that can be done in this country. Give companies a tax break for keeping things at home.
and I could go on, but he won the election so I’ll pass on that, but someone put a muzzle on the pitbull before he pisses someone off really bad.
He’s not bothering me, I’m not of a party affiliation any longer as the Republicans screwed the pooch this last time and McCain…well his meds are not working well at all.
Love,
Mike
Michael,
A. Why should we buy healthcare for every American? Do you realize nothing is free? Who is going to pay? Where does it say we should do this? You throw around a number of people uninsured, but most are teenagers and for those that really don’t have any, have you walked into a hospital lately…they gladly help you, then ask you about your insurance. If you don’t have any, they submit you to medicare. No need for govt healthcare, you already have what we need in the bankrupt medicare.
B. Its called capitalism….you aren’t alone in being upset at overdraft fees, which is why many, many banks don’t have them anymore b/c they saw a niche to earn new customers. If you need a name of a new bank that doesn’t have overdraft fees, let me know, I ‘ll give you a name or two.
C.Have to say, I was bit surprised by C, but I agree with you. Not enough incentive for companies to keep jobs in America. We have capitalistic companies in an atmosphere where govt wants to penalize it and forces companies to look elsewhere to be more profitable.
Anyway, I’m with you on your McCain comment too…never understood that guy. Never really gritted my teeth before when I voted.
@DA
Why do you want a public option?
Rahm,
Single-payer,51 Senate votes.**** public option, ****
Republicans…I’m really getting worried about you guys.
You haven’t done **** about ALL the criminal activity of
the murderous previous administration,etc.
.
If the health care bill is wrong, don’t continue with it either fix it or drop it! Don’t continue with a plan that is obviously an outrage to our country! God Bless the members of Democratic party that will stand up for Americans and not buy into something that is bad for all Americans.